| Hair Removal Methods |
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When I turned thirteen, I suddenly realized something: I did not like the hair on my legs. So, I went to people close to me to find out what I should do for this problem.
Of course, the first thing that I heard was that I should shave. This entailed buying razor blades on a regular basis and spending a little extra time in the shower shaving my legs. Unfortunately, I learned quickly that I could not just shave; I needed to use a shaving cream or soap as well or risk the painful wrath of razor burn. This meant that my skin was irritated by the rough friction of the razor blade and tended to stay painfully on my skin for up to twenty four hours and worsen if I applied lotion to it. I found that a moisturizing soap or shaving cream worked well, leaving my legs soft and hair-free when I was done.
For a brief period of time, I tried plucking all of my hair, but found that I had a lot more hair on my legs than I had initially thought. The amount of time it took to pluck my legs was not worth it to me and I quickly quit that idea but I then came along a hair removal method called “epilating.” This was a machine which I only had to run over the hairs, plucking them several at a time, as if it combined many tweezers into one machine. I didn’t much like that though, because although it was fairly quick and efficient, I didn’t like pain very much and disliked the temporary itchiness and rash after the use of the epilator.
When I was fifteen, I began to look for other ways to get rid of unwanted hair again. Many of my friends had recently become interested in waxing. In this form of hair removal, hot wax, or a sugary concoction that had the consistency of caramel, was put on the legs (or any desired area really) and then let cool. Once it was cooled, it was pulled off quickly, taking all of the hair that it had cooled on with it. Unfortunately this was rather painful, although it did last longer than shaving, and cost a lot of money if done professionally. I tried doing it on my own at my home but found that it was messy and hard to manage, often resulting in more wax on my arms and face than on my legs.
I next tried depilatories. These creams disrupted the chemical bonds between the hair and skin that held them together, causing the hair to come loose. The downside of this type of hair removal method was that mild irritation was possible, since the depilatories often hurt the skin cells as well but it was recommended that a hydrocortisone cream be applied after use, which could help to lessen the skin irritation. Another con for this type of treatment was that many of these were very messy as well and (as I said before) I was rather clumsy, making the situation even worse.
At eighteen I decided to try laser hair removal. This entailed using different wavelengths of light, depending on the person, which destroyed melanin. This was recommended for people who were light skinned, but dark haired, which worked fine for me. Of course, it would not have been as great for my best friend, Rosie, who was African American. Unfortunately, this was not a permanent fix and hurt mildly, not to mention the cost.
When I was twenty, and none of my earlier and temporary hair removal methods had quite satisfied me, I gave electrolysis a try. This hair removal method used low radio frequency needle which was inserted into the pores to destroy the growth center of the hair, and the hair was then removed with a pair of specialized tweezers. I would have to go back multiple times for this treatment for any where from twelve months to eighteen for fifteen to sixty minute intervals every other week, but it would be permanent. |
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